The Check-in with floyd tunson
The Check-In is a series of casual conversations with some of our favorite artists. In this initial episode, Idris Goodwin, Director of the Fine Arts Center talks with Colorado artist, Floyd D. Tunson, about his art and life experiences.
The Check-in
Floyd Tunson at the FAC
In February 2020, the FAC Museum accessioned Hearts and Minds, a 9-panel multi-media installation by Floyd Tunson. Featured in this episode of The Check-In, this major work is a culmination of Tunson’s series through the 1980s and 1990s focused on the experiences of young Black men in American society. This powerful piece is an excellent example of Tunson’s style, in particular his use of multiple media and collage to create a rich and complex visual environment. Drawing on a Pop aesthetic, the installation is visually dynamic and invites the viewer to look closely at the many varied elements, from targets to portraits to scientific imagery to insects to money.
More about Tunson’s 2013 FAC Exhibition Son of Pop
Artist Statement
As Aristotle said, learning is the greatest of pleasures. My work reflects my journey to acquire knowledge. Along the way I have become a Janus. Looking at life from one direction, I see the terror of chaos, man’s inhumanity to man, mortality, and the vastness of the unknown. From another direction, the human condition seems like a magnificent, orderly evolution of extraordinary beauty. The totality of my work reflects my quest to comprehend and express these forces and their interconnectedness. Even my non-objective painting is based on this dialectic, where uninhibited strokes play against geometric order.
–Floyd D. Tunson